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Game 69: Ryan Johansen's christening

Posted Mar 21, 2014
by Aaron Portzline
| 0 comments

Ryan Johansen's emergence for the Blue Jackets has been well-chronicled, but tonight the 21-year-old stepped up on one of the biggest stages in the NHL. It was perhaps the most complete game of his career, or as coach Todd Richards put it, "his christening ... his baptism toward being a player in this league."

By 'player,' Richards meant player. As in, hoss.

Johansen scored the game-winning goal -- his 27th of the season -- with 3:01 remaining to lead the Blue Jackets to a 3-2 win over the Montreal Canadiens in Bell Centre. It was a wildly entertaining game, played at a torrid pace and staged between two red-hot goaltenders.

But Johansen had a night of nights. He had the first fight of his NHL career in the first period, won 18 of 22 faceoffs, and led the Blue Jackets' 40-shot effort with seven shots on goal.

“You take the two points, and we’re happy now,” Johansen said. “I’m really proud and happy I was able to score in that situation, because it would have been really tough to play like that and come out of here with anything less than two points.

“But now we set it aside and get ready to play at home, and I’m excited to get back on the ice again.”

The Blue Jackets play 19 hours from this writing, hosting the New York Rangers at 7 p.m. in Nationwide Arena.

The Blue Jackets and Rangers each have 78 points in the Metropolitan Division, so the game goes oh-so-far beyond the return of Rick Nash to Columbus. I will be a huge night in Columbus on Friday.

Let us spend yet a few more minutes on the Blue Jackets' win tonight.

Derek MacKenzie, Brandon Dubinsky and Johansen scored goals for the Blue Jackets, while goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky had 25 saves. The Blue Jackets outshot the Habs 40-27 and outhit them 36-17.

It is not a stretch to say the Blue Jackets significantly outplayed Montreal at even strength for most of the night.

"I think we were really able to limit them," Blue Jackets defenseman James Wisniewski said. "That's a good team with a lot of really talented players, but I think the game was mostly in our control. That was Blue Jackets hockey ... executed."

The Canadiens took a 1-0 lead at 14:53 of the first period, a power play goal thanks to a boarding penalty by Johansen. It was scored by Montreal forward Brendan Gallagher, who dived toward the net after a rebound and shoved it past Bobrovsky. Gallagher emerged smiling from a pile that included Bobrovsky and Blue Jackets defensemen Jack Johnson and Dalton Prout.

Only one minute later, this time with Johansen back in the box for cross-checking, the Blue Jackets scored a short-handed goal to pull to 1-1. It was scored directly off a faceoff in the Montreal zone, the result of a crafty play drawn up by two checking-line veterans, Mark Letestu and Derek MacKenzie.

Let's let Letestu describe it:

"I told Mac I was going to shoot it. I brought Wiz in to my backhand side to kind of decoy it, and Mac's job then is to go right to the net. With (Habs center David Desharnais) being a lefty (thus, their stick blades would both be snapping in the same direction) and him leaning to block me out a little bit, I knew I'd have the opportunity to try it.

"I wasn't trying to go high or anything, that's just the way it came off. And Derek jumped the defensemen and got through to the net."

Sounds easy enough. Letestu's faceoff win/slapshot hit Price in the chest and fell into the slot, where MacKenzie was crashing for the rebound. It was the Blue Jackets' ninth short-handed goal this season. It's hard to recall a better one.

Johansen had been out of the box all of 30 seconds when he found himself occupying the same spot on the ice as Montreal's Max Pacioretty, a chippy sort who had already had several minor skirmishes with Blue Jackets.

Typically mild-mannered, Johansen put his stick firmly in Pacioretty's lower back, sending Pacioretty to the ice in a belly flop. The Canadiens' veteran jumped to his skates, caught up to Johansen in the neutral zone and gave him a chop.

"I kind of shoved him and he fell over," Johansen said. "He came at me and asked me if I wanted to go. So I dropped my stuff.

"Right before that I took a bad penalty. I had two penalties there in the span of two shifts and I thought I was going to get another one when I shoved him. I didn't know if they'd called anything, but when he came at me I just kind of blacked out there a bit."

Pacioretty won the fight with two rights at the end. Johansen landed flat on his back, hard, but seemed fine when he returned for the second period.

"Yeah, I'm fine," he said. "But I guess I'm 0 for 1."

Needless to say, Johansen's fight shared the conversation with Johansen's goal in the post-game dressing room.

“You see the gloves come off and you’re like … ‘Joey?’ ” Wisniewski said. “Me, personally? I freakin’ loved it.”

“He did a great job,” Blue Jackets center Brandon Dubinsky said. “He stood in there and held his own. I’m only laughing because I don’t think you want your top guy fighting like that."

The Blue Jackets went up 2-1 at 6:53 of the 2nd when Dubinsky scored off a rebound in the slot. Johnson helped start the sequence, skating the puck deep in the Montreal zone and around the back of the net. He sent the puck out to the blue line, where Prout and fast-approach Blake Comeau both believed themselves to be the target.

Comeau stepped in front of Prout and fired a shot that hit Price and settled before him. It was Dubinsky's 14th of the season.

The Canadiens had a prime chance to pull to 2-2 at 3:21 of the third period after Jackets defenseman Nikita Nikitin tripped Montreal's Lars Eller to thwart a breakaway. A penalty shot was awarded to Eller, but Bobrovsky held his ground and stopped a rather underwhelming attempt to protect the 2-1 lead, at least for a little while.

Montreal did get the equalizer later in the second. At 7:48 of the third, Thomas Vanek one-timed a crosszone feed from Pacioretty to make it 2-2.

The Canadiens had their best period in the third, but the Blue Jackets held fast. It was great drama.

Columbus was 0 for 8 on the power play, including 51 seconds of 5-on-3 play. It would have been Regret No. 1 had the Blue Jackets shared points with the Canadiens or even lost entirely.

But with 3:01 to play, Johansen intercepted a pass from Canadiens defenseman Jarred Tinordi and headed the other direction. With Tinordi and Mike Weaver chasing the play, Johansen got to within 10 feet of Price and hit the brakes.

"I couldn't tell if he was coming out to cut off an angle or what, so I pulled up," Johansen said. "Then I saw an opening."

Johansen fired over Price's right pad.

"Everyone was saying 'shoot, shoot, shoot,'" Richards said. "He kind of made the play and hesitated a little bit. He was kind of off-balance, but it found its way in, which was kind of surprising to see, because it seemed like everything we threw at the net was stopped by Price."

Richards has seen Johansen score big goals many times. Did he like him fighting?

"Absolutely. The christening … whatever you want to call it, maybe the baptism of playing in the league … sometimes you have to get into a fight," Richards said. "This was his first fight.

"When you see it meaning so much to him, when you see a guy that's so engaged like he was ... it rubs off on guys. You can't help but get into the game."

-- Johansen now has 27 goals on the season. Only Rick Nash and Geoff Sanderson have scored more goals in a season for the Blue Jackets.

-- Bobrovsky has faced two penalty shots this season and denied them both. He also stopped Vancouver's Jannik Hansen on Nov. 22 in Vancouver. There have been 23 penalty shots against the Blue Jackets in their franchise history, and only six have scored.

-- The 0-for-8 on the power play puts the Blue Jackets in an 0-for-27 tailspin on the man advantage dating to March 4. "It's something we have to look at," said Letestu, who shared the points with Johnson on the first unit. "We have to get it right."

-- The win was the Blue Jackets' 17th on the road this season, matching a franchise record set in 2010-11.

-- Johansen only had previous fight dating all the way back through his junior career, according to www.hockeyfights.com. Asked if he'd offered any advice, Blue Jackets right wing Jared Boll smiled. "There's really not enough time left in the season."

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